What Nutrients Are Highest In Calories
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There are six basic categories of foods -- carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals, and water. Our body needs a well-balanced proportion of all these categories of foods to survive and stay healthy.
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The most important factor in the foods we consume is its nutritional value and the kind of nutrients present in the food we eat. Apart from the nutritional value of foods, the calorie content of the food we eat also matters a lot because our body needs calories to function properly.
In nutritional jargon, a calorie is a unit of energy. Calories and energy are usually interchangeable and the amount of calories present foods is a measure of the amount of energy it contains. Not all foods contain the same amount of calories in an equal amount of serving. For instance, while one gram of carbohydrates and one gram of proteins contains 4 calories each, one gram of fats contains 9 calories, which is double the calorie content of the same serving of carbohydrates and proteins.
Even among fats, saturated fats (which are in a solid state at room temperature, such as butter, coconut oil or the fat present in meat) and Trans fats are harmful because they elevate the blood cholesterol levels and increase the risk of heart diseases. However, unsaturated fats which are in liquid state at room temperature such as polyunsaturated fats (derived from soybeans, corn, sesame, sunflower oils, or fish and fish oils) and monounsaturated fats (derived from olives, olive oil or canola oil, most nuts and their oils, and avocados) are comparatively very safe.
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